Sushi Tuna Recipes

The following overview of this tasty fish will get you up to speed quickly on all things tuna so you can order it with confidence in a restaurant or whip up your own nigiri like the pros.

In Japanese tuna is called maguro. There are about eight different species of tuna fish. The most popular types used in sashimi and sushi are:

• Blue fin tuna (hon maguro)
  Bigeye tuna (mebachi maguro)
  Yellow fin tuna (kiwada)

These are really big tuna. Yellow fin and bigeye tuna can weigh up to 400 pounds! Blue fin tuna can tip the scales at a whopping 1,500 pounds!

When it comes to sushi fish, the Blue Fin tuna reigns supreme. As a result, their cost is as hefty as their size. Unless you have a big wallet it's unlikely that you will be using this type of sushi fish in your tuna recipes.

Once the head and tail of the tuna have been discarded, two blocks of flesh are carved from both sides of the spine. In Japanese these are called toro. These can further be divided into the following:

1. Otoro - This is the richest and fattiest front part of the fish. It is a faint pink color.
2. Sunazuri - This is a small part found in the front of the otoro block. Thin lines of fat run through out this meat.
3. Chutoro is the toro cut near the tail of the tuna fish. It too, is very expensive because of its high fat content.
4. Blue fin Tuna, Tsujiji Fish Market, Tokyo 

It is interesting to note that at one time these fatty types of tuna were considered so undesirable that they were fed as scraps to cats!

Akami is the name of the flesh taken from the tuna's back. It is a dark red color. This is the grade of sushi most commonly used by your local sushi chef.